Navy Lieutenant Denied Leniency After Adultery

Rejecting a plea for leniency, the secretary of the Navy has ordered an “other than honorable” discharge for a Navy lieutenant who admitted committing adultery with the wife of a Marine sergeant.

Navy Secretary John Dalton approved the recommendation of Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Charles Krulak in the case of Navy Lt. Derrick J. Smith, 26, an Annapolis graduate who once was considered an outstanding officer with a bright career.

“I’m terribly and deeply saddened by the decision,” Smith said. “I can’t believe that not one person in the organization heard my cry for just and fair treatment. I’ve lost faith in an organization that I had come to love and trust over the last nine years of my life.”

Dalton’s decision calls for Smith to be out of the Navy by Friday. Smith, an engineering graduate, said he hopes to find a job in San Diego but he may be forced to return to his parents in Maryland.

“The Navy says it cares for its sailors when they’re in trouble,” Smith said. “But when I needed someone, nobody would help me.”

Smith had hoped for a general discharge, which does not carry the same stigma as an other than honorable discharge. The latter can present lifelong difficulties in securing civilian employment.

Smith had sought the same treatment as Air Force Lt. Kelly Flinn, who was granted a general discharge in a highly publicized case that began with Flinn engaging in an affair with the husband of an Air Force enlisted woman.

Dalton’s decision was forwarded Monday, without comment, to Smith’s military attorney.

Smith had pleaded guilty to committing adultery with the wife of a Marine who was on deployment in Okinawa, Japan. But in an interview he insisted he only pleaded guilty to avoid a possible jail sentence and that he was unaware during their affair that the woman was still married to her husband, with whom she has a young child.

Smith’s parents, aunt and pastor had pleaded for officials to allow Smith to salvagesomething of his military career. Several Navy and Marine Corps officers submitted letters attesting to Smith’s fitness as an officer.

“By talking with Derrick on many occasions and observing his growth and maturity, one could tell that he was a person of great character with moral convictions,” wrote the Rev. Thomas C. Fitchett, pastor of the Girdletree Charge United Methodist Church in Girdletree, Md.

Smith’s assertion that he believed that the woman’s marriage was finished was contradicted by her statements to Navy investigators.

The woman said that soon after she and Smith met in San Diego in mid-1996, “I then told Smith that my husband was in the Marine Corps. During this time, I felt that Smith did not care if I was married. I felt that if he did, he would have stood up and left.”

Instead, according to both the woman and Smith, the couple began a sexual relationship that lasted until Smith was sent on a six-month overseas deployment.

During their months together, they visited his parents in Maryland. “She brought her young son with her, and gave us the impression that she was a single parent, raising her child,” Smith’s parents wrote to Navy authorities.

When the woman’s husband returned from Okinawa, he discovered risque pictures and love letters indicating that his wife had been unfaithful. When she told him about the affair, her husband, now a drill instructor at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, turned the case over to military authorities.

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Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, adultery is considered a criminal offense. Marine Corps officials say it is only charged, however, in cases in which the adultery is seen as a threat to good order and discipline.

The case of an officer committing adultery with an enlisted man’s wife while he is on deployment fits that definition, officials said. Because he had been assigned to work with a Marine Corps battalion, Smith’s case was decided by the Marine Corps, not the Navy.

Smith has retained a civilian attorney and said he may sue to get his discharge upgraded, which is usually a long and unsuccessful process.